Bill Gates donates 99 percent of his wealth to the Gates Foundation

Bill Gates, in an interview with the Associated Press (AP), said about the approximately $107 billion donation he will make to the Gates Foundation, "A little bit will go to the children, and a small share will go to my personal needs. All profits from climate investments are also transferred to the foundation."

Gates, who pointed out that the foundation, which operates in many areas worldwide and was founded in 2000, will close in 20 years, said, "I think this period is the right balance in terms of spending the money effectively and letting people know that this is not going to last forever. Hopefully by then diseases like malaria and polio will be history."

Gates said that with the donation he made, almost all of his wealth, the foundation will use a total budget of more than $200 billion in the fields of health and human development over the next 20 years.

Noting that aging populations in wealthy countries, financial burdens related to the Ukraine-Russia war and other factors are straining budgets for health and development aid and that awareness needs to be raised on this issue, Gates said, "There are new ways to protect women from HIV, low-cost methods to kill mosquitoes. But it would be a great tragedy if these cannot be delivered to those in need."

"WE ARE OPEN TO CRITICISM AND EXPECT MORE"

Gates stated that the "Giving Pledge" initiative, which he launched with Warren Buffett and Melinda French Gates in 2010, increased the expectation in society for the wealthy to contribute more.

Gates, who stated that the foundation's work has not been criticized enough and that they expect more feedback from the public, said, "If there are people who have other priorities when it comes to dealing with mosquito-related deaths or maternal deaths, I have a hard time convincing them. But the number of people who come to us and say, 'How should we solve malnutrition?' is very small. We are open to such criticism and expect more."

GATES BLAMS MUSK FOR USAID CUTS

Gates criticized Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), for cutting aid from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in a statement to the Financial Times.

Citing Musk's example of cutting aid to a hospital in Mozambique that prevents women from infecting their babies with HIV, Gates said, "The picture of the richest man in the world killing the poorest children in the world is not pretty at all."

"I wish he would go and meet with the kids who are infected with HIV right now because he took that money," Gates said.